cinematic style - Julia Roberts in Mona Lisa Smile

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Some people don't like Julia Roberts and to those people I ask the question: have you never seen Mona Lisa Smile? Sure she's awful in Eat Pray Love (you just want to slap her) and in My Best Friend's Wedding she's such a bad person you can't even want to be her friend. But I think Julia Roberts get such a bad rap. She's like my actress because I grew up on a steady diet of Notting Hill and Mystic Pizza and Runaway Bride and Pretty Woman and Stepmom. Her corn-fed good looks and shiny hair and perfect skin were some of the defining aspects of my cinematic coming-of-age. Her and Richard Gere = ultimate movie couple of all time. I'll just never get past that laugh. (obviously, we've already had her twice now. I promise this will be the last for a little while!)

I think she is the most endearing in Mona Lisa Smile. Mostly her character in this movie is so real. She has flaws - she lets go of the good guy and takes up with the wrong guy, she can't see past her prejudices and she's naive in a way that she oughtn't to be, not really, she says the wrong thing and sometimes thinks the wrong thing, too. But the difference is that her character is good. She wants to help. She tries. She's the outsider in the establishment at Wellesley and she wants to make a difference. She has stars in her eyes but they're the right stars. She's the Professor Keating for our generation. And I guess in many ways this movie is trying to be Dead Poet's Society for girls. And I think, also, in many ways, it succeeds. The last scene of the movie is as moving a finale of this kind of pedagogy-drama film as I've ever seen. (and trust me, I've seen my fair share. I like coming of age tales, remember?)

Catherine Watson's style is total blue-stocking chic. In fact, this was the kind of blue-stocking chic that the term was invented for. She wears big cardigans and pretty, slightly exotic-looking blouses (She was a renegade, after all) and loafers and massive camel overcoats or tweed macintoshes. It's New England in the winter. It's preppy, university style, done right by someone who's been around the block once or twice. I love so many of the outfits in this film, from the flippy, frothy skirts paired with tight sweaters and flouncy hair, to the way they all seem like naturals on bikes with their paperbag waist trousers and collared shirts. Her hair in this is fantastic. Since I've started wearing my hair half-up, half-down I've become more and more interested in barettes and the like. She's got a stunning array of hair accoutrements in this film, plus she wears it in a way I've been dying to try - high pony tail with side fringe curling down. What a dream to be a Senior on campus taught by someone as inspiring as her. Can you tell I'm not quite ready to be done with university yet?

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p.s I'm taking requests for cinematic style! Leave a comment or get in touch on twitter (@hannahroserose) if you have a movie you think deserves to be featured. I've got a few lined up but always looking for the next wardrobe to fawn over...

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